About O.C.
What is Open Cathedral?
Open Cathedral is a ministry of presence, not a place. We welcome those who are physically and spiritually homeless, on their own terms, with compassion and open hearts. We are here for those for whom religion as usual leaves one seeking more. We welcome ALL; we are Open Cathedral.
What do you do?
During the warmer months, we take peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and water to street people in Rogers Park, near the Howard EL stop. When it gets colder, we also take mittens, hats and socks to those folks we find on the streets. We offer food, drink, a listening ear and an open heart. We have no need to convert or "save" anyone. While we can offer information to people needing supportive services, Open Cathedral exists to live justice and mercy, not to function as yet another social service agency itself.
Being compassion as opposed to talking about it
When Rabbi Jesus spoke to people, he was totally present to them, radiating love and compassion as if the person into whose eyes he looked was the only person in the world at that holy moment. We can do no less.
Too many of us simply walk past those without domicile, or, if we do stop to give money, we fail to make any real human contact; we avoid touching or making eye contact, for that might just be too real.
When asking someone if they'd like a bottle of water and a sandwich, the ministry to BE compassion simply happens. When the drink and food is offered and a warm word, a meeting of the eyes, the souls, happens. Communion takes place.
The one doing the preaching is Jerry standing on the corner holding a cup asking for money, singing his heart out, who hugs us because we stop and talk with love. It's Henderson who's got a name, an indentity, and is proud to share that, with a handshake. Ralph's raw honesty in wanting a beer, but who takes the sandwich and water, later walking by, saying thank you, and patting Mary Ann+'s shoulder; it's the homeless Muslim woman and her child sitting in the drenching humidity, simply asking for help. They are all God speaking to us and changing us!
This is why we're here. This is Open Cathedral.
BroYo
The ministry of Open Cathedral is independent and interspiritual, seeking to emulate holy men and women from all traditions who dedicated their lives in service to others.
The Rev Mary Ann Croisant is Bishop-elect of the Diocese of the Road to Emmaus, affiliated with the Ecumenical Free Catholic Communion.
Br. Jacob Lopez-Hineynu,(aka "BroYo" rhymes w/ yo-yo) is an interspiritual hermit-monk rooted in the Roman Catholic Church, who delights in the life of compassion and unknowing.
"The message of the Hebrew Bible is that
serving God
and serving our fellow human beings
are
inseparably linked, and the
split between the two
impoverishes both."
Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth
Be the change you wish to see--Gandhi
"...the true way is not the renouncing of things, but making the best use of them, making the right use of them; it is not going away from life, but being among the crowd, being in the midst of life and yet not being attached to it."
Hazrat Inayat Khan, Founder of the universalist International Sufi Movement
